According to prior art, a digital content stream, such as an audio or a video stream possibly comprising audio, delivered to a receiver in the context of content-on-demand such as video-on-demand (VoD) is delivered through a one-to-one connection with a VoD server, for example by using IP (Internet Protocol) unicast distribution. This one-to-one distribution model is opposed to a one-to-many distribution model, where a same content source is received at the same time by many receivers.
The one-to-one distribution model allows a receiver to intervene on the unrolling of the content by issuing so-called trick mode commands. Trick mode commands comprise actions such as play, stop, pause, fast reverse, fast forward and go to chapter. In this distribution model, it is the receiver that commands the streaming of a content stream through a one-to-one connection with a content streaming server. While this distribution model allows trick mode commands, the model does not allow more than one receiver to receive the same content stream and allow more than one receiver to issue trick mode commands on the same stream.
In the one-to-many distribution model, it is the distribution server that commands the streaming. The one-to-many distribution model is used to distribute a same content stream to a large audience, for example to distribute TV or radio programs. With this distribution model, trick mode commands are not allowed, or only allowed for one receiver.
The above described distribution models are convenient for Video-on-Demand applications and television or radio broadcasting. However, the above described distribution models do not allow combining a one-to-many distribution with the support of trick mode commands from several receivers.
One of the problems that need to be solved when trick mode commands from several receivers are to be supported in a one-to-many stream distribution model is the management of the flow of trick mode commands that the streaming server must handle.
According to prior art, rendering of a content over multiple receivers with support of trick mode commands is applied in the context of, for example, e-learning applications, where students each have a receiver and can issue trick mode commands to intervene on the unrolling of a course. According to prior art, the course is distributed through prior downloading of the course content on the receiver of each student, and each student can issue trick mode commands. However, current state of the art does not allow management for handling the flow of trick mode commands.